The Arthur Smith effect on the offense won’t truly be unveiled until Ohio State’s season starts Sept. 5 against Ball State.
When Ryan Day hired the former NFL coach in January to be the offensive coordinator, the conventional wisdom was that Smith’s primary task would be to put more juice in the OSU run game. After all, Day is a passing game master.
But already, players say, the change under Smith is noticeable in both phases of the offense.
“It’s awesome,” senior center Carson Hinzman said Wednesday after the Buckeyes finished their sixth practice of training camp.
Hinzman loves how Smith preaches that the linemen must play with violence. It helps that Smith was an offensive lineman during his playing days at North Carolina.
“It’s like, ‘Man, it doesn’t matter what’s going to happen, we’re going to go and rock these dudes off the ball,’” Hinzman said. “To have that mindset from the top down is pretty cool. It’s just fun.”
Smith coached 17 years in the NFL, including three as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Last year, he was the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers, coaching Aaron Rodgers and a backup named Will Howard that you may have heard of.
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